Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, revealed in a Facebook post that he originally declined the appointment because he felt unqualified to address abuse cases.
“The task [of prefect] includes the issue of child abuse, and I do not feel prepared nor trained for these issues,” he said. “I do not feel qualified or trained to guide something like this,” he added in a Facebook post the following day.
Since 2001, the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith has been entrusted with adjudicating canonical cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by clerics. In a July 1 letter, Pope Francis assured Archbishop Fernández that “very competent professionals” within the disciplinary section of the dicastery could address the sexual abuse of minors.
BishopAccountability.org, which hosts the largest public collection of information on the clergy abuse crisis. has warned that Archbishop Fernández has a “troubling record” in addressing the sexual abuse of minors. The new prefect has rejected the criticism and insisted that “in principle they [victims] are always believed.”
However, a letter from Archbishop Fernández to Father Eduardo Lorenzo, published by the La Plata (Argentina)-based El Dia in February 2019, reveals a shockingly dismissive attitude to parents who raised concerns about the priest, who had been accused of abuse in 2008. The local prosecutor had determined that there was insufficient evidence to press charges; still, the parents raised concerns about his appointment as pastor of a parish with a school.
“I don’t know how they managed to make the presence of this theme so constant in the media,” Archbishop Fernández said of those who raised concerns. “It is completely understandable that some parents have been troubled if they were told that a supposedly dangerous being—which is certainly not your case—came to their school … But one wonders what other objectives are being pursued—some—by the people who mobilized this.”
“I apologize if I made a mistake in exposing you to this time of public pain and humiliation,” Archbishop Fernández told Father Lorenzo.
Archbishop Fernández did not transfer Father Lorenzo to the parish with the school, but confirmed Father Lorenzo in his in his then-current parish assignment, traveling to his parish to concelebrate Mass with him the following month. Nine months later, the priest, facing additional abuse allegations, committed suicide.